The Resistance Platform
Madison Brang
With devastating environmental and social realities, there is activism, legislation, and resistance. The Resistance Platform is a letter-generating tool that promotes change by giving everyone a voice, starting conversations, and connecting the public sphere to the industrial sphere to petition against environmental and social injustices. Focusing on 'Cancer Alley,' St James Parish, Louisiana, the Resistance Platform holds Formosa plastics, the Taiwanese petroleum manufacturing company, accountable for environmental racism and targeted hazardous waste.
Cancer Alley is a predominantly Black community in St. James Parish, Louisiana, bordering large industrial petrochemical plants. It is coined Cancer Alley because of the increasing toxicity in the air due to the industrial plants' intentional proximity near the residence.
The Resistance Platform directly connects the user to major contributors and supporters of Formosa Plastics' newest $9.4 billion project, The Sunshine Project, through letter generation. The Sunshine Project has the potential of doubling the toxicity of the air in St. James Parish. The Resistance Platform will educate the user and allow people, including St. James Parish residents, environmentalists, front-line workers at Formosa Plastics, etc., to place accountability and directly contact policymakers and corporate entities involved in the promotion of The Sunshine Project. The mission is to provide an accessible, intersectional platform for conversation between the ones affected and the ones who can create change within environmental and social justice movements. It follows the ideals of transparency, reliance, and accountability by placing responsibility on large industries creatively and purposefully.